Old grudges, new equations: Inside the Nitish Kumar-Chirag Paswan rift haunting NDA again in Bihar

LJP(RV) president Chirag Paswan with Bihar CM and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar. (Image: X/@iChirag Paswan)

A fresh seat-sharing clash has reopened old political wounds in Bihar's NDA bloc. While Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has been allocated 29 sets as part of the seat-sharing agreement, sources reveal that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is unhappy with some of the seats set aside for the LJP(RV).

"How can he (Chirag) get Rajgir (SC) and Sonbarsa (SC)? Go and settle this with the BJP," a livid Nitish was quoted as telling a JD(U) leader by The Indian Express.

Nitish's outburst, however, is not really surprising. And his distrust of Chirag is neither new nor off the mark. For the JD(U), it's rooted in what they see as a political ambush. Many in Nitish's camp still believe Chirag was quietly encouraged by the BJP in 2020 to eat into the JD(U)'s base.

The numbers from that election still sting. The then undivided LJP, contesting solo, polled more votes than the JD(U) in 32 seats. In 26 of those, the LJP's vote tally was higher than the margin by which the JD(U) lost. In five other constituencies, Chirag's party even came second.

The outcome left Nitish bruised as his party shrank to 43 seats, far behind the BJP's 74. The JD(U) eventually got its small revenge by wooing the lone LJP MLA who had scraped through in Begusarai's Matihani seat by just 333 votes.

So when seat-sharing talks began this time, the JD(U)'s message was clear that Matihani, the only constituency the LJP won in 2020, was off the table.

Having been forced to climb down from its demand of contesting a symbolic one seat more than the BJP to ensure continuity in the perception of the JD(U) being the 'big brother' in the alliance, Nitish continues to be wary of the BJP's intentions this time around as well.

The standoff between Nitish Kumar and Chirag Paswan echoes a rivalry that began long before either led their parties and dates back to the time when the Bihar CM and Chirag's late father Ram Vilas Paswan were just starting out as leaders in the mid-1990s.

The story begins in the mid-1990s, a time when Bihar's political stage was being redrawn by the emergence of a new generation of Socialist leaders in the form of Ram Vilas Paswan, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Nitish Kumar, each representing a different social bloc, but destined to collide.

Ram Vilas Paswan, a Dalit leader with a head start, had already built his base by then. He had first entered the Assembly from Alauli in Khagaria in 1969, and two decades later, was serving as a Union minister in V.P. Singh's Janata Dal government.

Lalu Prasad, the fiery Yadav leader who emerged from the student politics of the JP movement, made his mark early, winning from Chhapra (now Saran) in 1977 and becoming Chief Minister in 1990. His rise rewrote the grammar of Bihar's caste politics, placing backward caste assertion at its core.

Nitish Kumar, a Kurmi by caste and a quiet technocrat by style, arrived on the scene later. He won his first Assembly election from Harnaut in 1985, and in 1989, entered Parliament from Barh, defeating a Congress stalwart. Like Paswan, he was inducted into the Union Cabinet by V.P. Singh, marking the start of his national profile.

But camaraderie soon gave way to competition. Nitish broke first, leaving the Janata Dal in 1994 to form the Samata Party with George Fernandes. Lalu split next, founding the RJD in 1997. Paswan followed with the LJP in 2000. The Socialist brotherhood had splintered, and the rivalries that would shape Bihar for decades had begun.

In an interview with The Indian Express in 2015, Paswan recalled one of the early flashpoints. After the NDA's narrow victory in 2000, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had offered him the Chief Minister’s post. Paswan said he declined, believing the alliance lacked the numbers but was surprised when Nitish readily accepted the offer.

When Nitish failed to prove his majority and resigned within days, Paswan reportedly didn't hide his satisfaction. A great Bihar rivalry had taken root.

Paswan also admitted that his later exit from the NDA, in 2002, wasn't just over the Gujarat riots. He was equally upset at seeing Nitish elevated as Railway Minister while he was shifted to a less prominent portfolio.

After the February 2005 Assembly elections, when the LJP won 29 seats and the state delivered a hung verdict, Nitish reached out again, seeking Paswan's support to form the government. Paswan refused to back anyone. The re-election that followed saw Nitish sweep to power and he has ruled Bihar almost continuously since.

Those close to Chirag Paswan say he often reflects on that moment. In 2005, they believe, his father might have missed his only real chance at the chief minister's chair.

When Nitish returned to office in November 2005, he moved swiftly to consolidate his position. One of his earliest political gambits was to create a new 'Mahadalit' category for government schemes — covering nearly all Scheduled Castes, except the Paswans. Ram Vilas condemned it as "unconstitutional," seeing in it not just a policy decision, but a personal blow.

That move cemented the rivalry that, decades later, continues to echo in Bihar's political corridors, and is now playing out between Nitish and Chirag.

Despite their long-standing rivalry, both Ram Vilas Paswan and Nitish Kumar showed remarkable flexibility when it came to the NDA. In 2013, after one of Nitish's periodic exits from the alliance, Paswan returned to the NDA fold reportedly at the urging of his son, Chirag, ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The move paid off handsomely in the Modi-wave election. The LJP bagged six Lok Sabha seats, while the JD(U), contesting separately, was reduced to just two — a sharp fall of 18 seats.

By the time of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, both Nitish and Paswan were back together in the NDA, but the alliance had lost its warmth. "There was only a working arrangement between the two parties," a senior JD(U) leader recalled, hinting at the chill beneath the surface.

An LJP (RV) functionary put it more bluntly: "Nitish went for Paswan's Rajya Sabha nomination filing in 2019 unwillingly. Chirag still remembers how his father was made to wait that day."

That moment, say those close to Chirag, marked a turning point. After Ram Vilas's demise a year later, the strained equations hardened into open mistrust and set the stage for the bitter rivalry now playing out between Nitish Kumar and his one-time protégé’s son.